On Mon, 20 Feb 2006 21:50:46 -0500, Brian Fredericksen 
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>People blow by my 1989 bee truck in Humvees and Huge gas
>Guzzlers on their way to work with no other passenger in the vehicle.  A
>bag of groceries costs $50-60 dollars. Fancy cups of coffee cost $5.00
>and half of it might be dumped out 20 minutes later.  Folks drop $100
>for an evening out ... no big deal.
>
>Sorry I just don't feel too bad getting $5.00 for an 8 oz jar of honey, it
>lasts a lot longer then a cup of coffee.

I don’t think Humvees, $5 cups of coffee, and $100 evenings out should be 
the reference points by which a sustainable enterprise finds its way.  No 
one is denying that that part of the economy exists, but wouldn’t a 
sustainable beekeeper want to operate according to an entirely different 
paradigm?  If sustainability is our goal, then I say forget the Humvees and 
take the Amish or your great-great-grandparents or Peruvian peasants for 
your reference points.  Of course, we’re going to make a lot of concessions 
and compromises when it comes time to make decisions, but I think a goal of 
sustainability compels us to at least begin our thinking with a different 
archetype.

I sell half pound jars of honey myself, and it’s something I struggle 
with.  From my way of thinking, I overcharge for a half pound jar at 
$2.75.  (I recognize, by the way, that cost structures would be quite 
different in Brooklyn, for instance.)  I try to justify my price by 
thinking: if someone wants to buy such a foolishly small jar, let him pay 
for it.  I retail a one pound jar for $3.75.  I consider that a fair price, 
fair to the customer and fair to me.  For perspective, my honey is produced 
without the use of any antibiotics, chemical pesticides, fumigants, or 
repellants.  Even though I sell them, I don’t believe in half pound jars.  
I think a sensible customer should buy by the quart, if not by the case of 
quarts.  I don’t consider it insignificant that the folks that keep a milk 
cow buy my honey in quarts and the folks that get heart bypass surgery for 
their guinea pigs buy my honey in half pound jars.  When I sell a half 
pound jar I feel somewhat complicit in the prissy inefficiency of it.  But 
then again, I’ve bought half pound jars myself as souvenirs.  And these 
folks want to buy honey; why not let them buy mine.  At least they’re 
buying honey I believe in, even if I don’t believe in the size.  So not 
knowing exactly what I want to do, I meet the demand that’s there.

Your comrade in guilt,
Eric

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